Robotics & Automation News

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starship technologies

Logistics and supply chain: An overview of ‘goods-to-person’ and ‘last-mile delivery’ technologies

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The term “goods to person” in the context of the logistics and supply chain sector refers to technology that brings items from locations within, for example, a warehouse to a human picker while he or she remains in one place, also within the warehouse. 

And while “logistics” and “supply chain” are terms that are often used interchangeably, logistics usually refers to moving goods along public roads or out in the wider world, whereas supply chain refers to the entire journey that the goods make, as well as specific parts of it, such as their processing through a warehouse.

One of the technologies most readily associated with medium- to large-scale warehouses is the conveyor, which has been around for more than 100 years. But in the past few years, warehouse robots have been eroding the total dominance of conveyors by offering what are offering described as “flexible” supply chain systems, in contrast to the “fixed” nature of conveyors. [Read more…] about Logistics and supply chain: An overview of ‘goods-to-person’ and ‘last-mile delivery’ technologies

Starship Technologies celebrates 50,000 autonomous deliveries with its robots

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Starship says its autonomous delivery robots have now travelled over 200,000 miles – the equivalent of driving around the world more than eight times

Starship Technologies, the world’s leading provider of autonomous delivery services, today announced that it has passed the major milestone of 50,000 commercial deliveries.

The company’s robots have travelled in over 100 cities around the world, operating commercially every day in local neighbourhoods and university and corporate campuses across five different time zones.

Today, Starship celebrates its one year anniversary of operation in Milton Keynes, in the UK, having seen the number of houses served in the town grow by 450 percent in the last year.  [Read more…] about Starship Technologies celebrates 50,000 autonomous deliveries with its robots

Starship and Sodexo send more delivery robots to university

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Starship Technologies and Sodexo have launched a robot food delivery service at Northern Arizona University in partnership with several restaurants

It’s something your mom always told you – eat your breakfast – and now college students are starting to do just that, thanks to Starship robots and Sodexo.

Research has shown that up to 88 percent of college students skip breakfast, primarily because of lack of time, but that number is starting to turn around when delivery robots arrive on campus.

Starting today, students at Northern Arizona University’s Flagstaff campus will have the convenience of receiving food delivered by robot.  [Read more…] about Starship and Sodexo send more delivery robots to university

Top 20 autonomous delivery robots: Ready to take over the streets

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Despite some occasional antipathy towards them, autonomous delivery robots are gaining ground in urban landscapes. 

While some local authorities are unsure about allowing machines to roam free on city streets, most people probably accept that it’s only a matter of time before regulations accommodate the new technology.

Universities, meanwhile, as well as other organizations such as hotels, airports and large companies with extensive grounds of their own, have the opportunity to allow relatively large numbers of these autonomous mobile robots to deliver such things as snacks and maybe books, documents, and other items to students, guests and staff.  [Read more…] about Top 20 autonomous delivery robots: Ready to take over the streets

Starship Technologies partners with Sodexo to launch ‘world’s largest fleet of delivery robots on a university campus’

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First robot delivery service integrated with student meal plans debuts at George Mason University today

Sodexo, a food services and facilities company, and Starship Technologies, a robotics company, have partnered to launch robot food delivery services at George Mason University’s Fairfax, Virginia campus. (See video below.)

Beginning today, Mason’s 40,000 students, faculty and staff can access the Starship Deliveries app (iOS and Android) to order food and drinks to be delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes.

Blaze Pizza, Starbucks, and Dunkin’ are the first retailers to participate, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. Each on-demand delivery costs just $1.99.  [Read more…] about Starship Technologies partners with Sodexo to launch ‘world’s largest fleet of delivery robots on a university campus’

Insight: How neural networks are powering autonomous delivery

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By Tanel Pärnamaa, deep learning engineer at Starship Technologies

Artificial neural networks are one of the main tools used in machine learning to convert unstructured, low-level data into higher level information. As the ‘neural’ part suggests, they are brain-inspired systems intended to replicate the way that humans learn.

At Starship, we are building a fleet of autonomous delivery robots using trainable units, including mostly neural networks, where code is written by the model itself. The robots are recording and processing large sets of data in order to recognise surroundings and how to react in real time as each situation requires.

To begin with, the robots start by gaining a sense of the world through radars, a multitude of cameras and ultrasonics. However, this poses challenges because most of this knowledge gained is low-level and non-semantic.  [Read more…] about Insight: How neural networks are powering autonomous delivery

Starship Technologies raises another $25 million in funding and appoints new CEO

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Starship Technologies, the maker of small autonomous vehicles for home deliveries, has raised another $25 million in additional seed funding and has appointed Lex Bayer as chief executive officer.

The round includes follow-on investments from existing investors including Matrix Partners and Morpheus Ventures.

Additional investors include Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn, and former chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Gary Barber.  [Read more…] about Starship Technologies raises another $25 million in funding and appoints new CEO